After a year later of consistent use I decided it might be a good time to do something a little more comprehensive. I recently got back from a 3+ month trip to 30+ National Parks in North America, and lots of hands-on experience with the 6D.

Just over a year ago the Canon 6D was announced as the smallest and lightest full-frame SLR in the world, and naturally as a landscape and travel photographer I was quite intrigued by the ultralight factor so I got one of the first copies to ship. I had my doubts as the marketing and photography community had words like budget and economy wherever the Canon 6D was mentioned. Price wasn't part of my decision making as I own all the 5D-family bodies and the Nikon D800e, I just wanted it for the lightness and smallness factors.

A super high level overview of my Canon 6D Review:

- I've printed up to 40x60 and the quality is indistinguishable between the 5D original all the way up to the 6D - that is to say, excellent- It's rated for 150,000 shutter actuations, since recording the video I've now put on 250,000. Awesome! But why so many? Star trail and time-lapse, and I'm also writing an article on battery performance and needed to let one of my cameras run until the batteries died- Autofocus is the Canon 6D's worst and best feature. 11 AF points may not be enough if you shoot 80% or more fast action images. But the -3EV is currently the king of lowlight AF performance. I rely on this for accurate low-light AF with ND filters and long exposures. Great for travel & landscape photography.- WiFi is essentially useless for photographers who rely on intervalometers. Canon user experience team was fired or something...- GPS is a game changer for certain photographers, but again, Canon user experience team completely messed this one up by not including an idle shutoff time option = GPS remains on even when camera is turned off = camera dies.- Of all the different cameras I own this one is with me nearly 90% of the time. I do quite a bit of printing, and at large print sizes I'm seeing the same quality as the other cameras and this one is lighter. I actually prefer the simple AF system on the original 5D, 5D2 and 6D, and the -3EV for AF lock is great and incredibly practical for those who shoot in low-light.- GPS setting the date and time in and of itself is hugely valuable for me as I travel quite a bit. Remember when you had to manually adjust date and time in Aperture or Lightroom? Well you never have to do that again, and that's a huge timesaver for me.

From my experience with both the 5D3 and the 6D, the only major differences I usually notice are:

- Lower AF points on 6D- No GPS on 5D3- No WB displayed in 6D LCD... Canon used the precious real estate for WiFi OFF... they pulled another print button on us :|- 6D is lighter and has better balance. Once you use 6D for a while, 5D3 seems heavy and bulky, less comfortable in the hands

In addition I also created a Canon 6D PDF review that has tons of information and quite a few hi-res images, which can be downloaded here: http://www.6dreview.com

If you have any questions don't hesitate to leave them below. Alright, to close out I'll post some 6D captured images I've taken in the last 8 weeks or so. Thanks for reading everyone, and if you have questions let me know below! : )

« Last Edit: January 14, 2014, 07:00:25 PM by grahamclarkphoto »

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"Why limit yourself to what your eyes see when you have an opportunity to extend your vision?" - Edward Weston

I plan to get the 7d2 (if it emerges) for my sports/action body. The 6d will be my FF portraits and landscapes body. No need to try to get one body to do it all. Kind of like why an 18 - 300 lens would be a bad compromise at replacing all the primes and zooms between those two focal extremes.

Beautiful photos and nice work, Graham. I'm not quite sure how many actuations I have on my primary 6D, but I am really glad to hear your experience of putting so many actuations on your shutter without failure.

I would love to see something even like the new 70D's AF system in the 6D (MKII), but keeping the great sensitivity on the center point.

Hey Graham!, great images and fantastic review! You put a lot of work into this review, thanks for your time and effort! I just picked up 6D as a second body and so far have enjoyed it. Again, thanks for your work!

My Key Learning, is your equal emphasis on optics. I see more prime lenses in my future. I'm not a professional so I can't justify a stable of Ls, but I'm thinking about adding the EF 100mm f2.8 macro soon and possibly the EF 40mm. Will try to reduce my reliance on the 24-105 f4 L.

great practical review with lots of great images, but the image quality(not photo quality) exactly shows what Canon sensor lacks.the tonal transition is harsh , the color shift is always visible and DR seems very limited.especially after shooting the A7R for a couple of months , I feel all current DSLRs are dated and doomed in manyways.

honestly, if I only shoot stills , I do not use Canon or Nikon ,I just go Sony A7R + Fuji XE2.

I initially hated the A7R but as I shot it a lot with my D800E or 6D in the same night sites with a solid tripod , I changed my mind, it has better sensor and its sheer resolution is simply amazing , it may easily match the Pentax 645D or Leica S class of lowend cropped MF bodies, it cannot rival Phase or Hassy but easily match or even surpass the Leica S class of fake MF, isn't it amazing?so , despite of all its annoying quirks , the A7R might be the best 35mm format camera for many non-action shooters.I think it just needs a supr wide zoom or fisheye zoom to completely replace all my Nikon Canon bulky so-called digital camera with a lot of annoying analogue mechanical parts.seriously, the future is hybrid and the annoying slapping mirror AF must be replaced with the quiet and more accurate sensor based CDAF, which does not require AF micro adjustment.the D800E can never touch the Sony in terms of sheer resolution, usability in really bad low light (shooting milky way for example) because of the annoying mirror and the OVF, which is quickly becoming a thing of the last century.

honestly, after the 70D announcement, I have been hoping next 5D4 gets the dual pixel AF + EVF for serious video and hybrid work.with the dated OVF , we cannnot see anything in real darkness , but with the EVF we can actually see through what we are actually shooting even in complete darkness.I know there are a lot of EVF haters here and Nikon side of the world , but they are just nostalgic or sentimental over the old film era technology , not even trying it yet hating it. I think once they try it they will love it or at lest accept it.Imagine what if the 6D got the dualpixel AF of the C100, tiltable LCD of the Sony A7R and amazing high quality EVF of the Fuji XE2, how much better would it be than the current boring cameras like the 6D,the 5D3 or the D800E?I also want tocuh screen AF of the EM1 in my next Canon FF.I know many here think the touch AF as gimmick , but it is not, it is very very handy in video or super lowlight scenes.

No. Sorry. You cannot post something suggesting that anything about 6d is as good or better than anything about 5d. The guys who paid for a 5d will be apoplectic. Not saying it is right; it's just the way it works.